An Impromptu Fantasy
by Liete
Summary: -US/UK, AU- Follow Alfred F. Jones, gunner extraordinaire, as he sets off on an adventure to recruit the best party, save the world, make a name for himself, and maybe get along with his summoner every now and then, too.
1. Chapter 1

**An Impromptu Fantasy  
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**The Story in Which Alfred's Perseverance Pays Off and He Recruits a Summoner  
**

**By: Liete**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or any of the characters portrayed.**

**A/N: This is a continuation of the 30 Meetings story "Gunner and Summoner" (I know I said I'd wait, but the idea wouldn't leave me alone), so please read that first before you read this one. Although the main pairing will eventually be US/UK, there will be other characters showing up, and thus other pairings. Anyway, hope you enjoy!  
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Alfred woke up in the field outside of the southern woods, feeling decidedly disoriented. He hadn't died, but he definitely felt like he'd been on the wrong end of a couple of angry dragons. He groaned and clutched at his head as he sat up and recalled the events that had transpired. He'd been in the woods, wanting to recruit the mage hiding within and then he'd…

He'd had his ass thoroughly kicked by the scrawny little summoner.

Alfred grinned brightly as he jumped to his feet and checked his inventory. He still had his pistols, his bazooka, the guard ring he'd looted off a wolf, his small satchel of money, and his relatively small collection of potions and antidotes. He popped the cork off one of the potions and downed it in one gulp, the familiar warm feeling spreading to every part of him and relieving him of his pain and fatigue.

So the mage hadn't stolen anything off of him, he'd just opted to dump him outside instead of destroying him utterly and then looting his corpse like he was just a monster. He'd probably just been showing off a little bit.

It was then that it was settled, the short man was going to be his summoner if it killed him. Anyone who could beat him like that just _had_ to be a member of his party. It simply wasn't an option.

Alfred adjusted his glasses and dusted off his coat, then stretched out his stiff muscles. He'd forgotten what it was like to take a beating and he supposed if he was going to recruit the mage, he'd have to get used to it on a regular basis. No matter. The sheer badass and amazing-ness of his summoner to be would make up for the pain he'd suffer as a result. He'd just have to carry around more potions, and recruit a cute white mage further down the line.

With one last adjustment of his hat, Alfred dove back into the darkness of the woods.

* * *

"You actually came back? Are you a masochist?" The summoner asked irritably as Alfred stepped into the great hall once more.

Alfred shrugged and grinned brightly. "I told you! You're going to join my party!"

"Are you an idiot? I told you the answer is no, and that won't change just because you're a stubborn ass."

Alfred paused momentarily when he saw the mage cast his cloak aside again, but he saw no sign of the book and so he stepped forward. "You're not accomplishing anything by hiding out in here! Don't you want to see the world? Go on an adventure? Be a hero?"

"I have no interest in helping people, and I've had quite enough of your nonsense," the man said, and that dangerous smirk he'd seen before he'd passed out was on his face again. Alfred looked down at his feet in a panic, but there were no runic markings or anything remotely like them. He furrowed his brow, but then realized that the summoner's gaze wasn't on him, but whatever was behind him. He stiffened, then slowly turned around.

As he faced the beast that was behind him, it occurred to him that the little white creature that had been dancing around the mage's feet before had been nowhere to be seen. There was no doubt that the thing growling at him at that moment was the same creature, only it had increased in size tenfold, resembling one of the wolves he often encountered outside of town, except for the fact that it had more tails, sharper teeth and a killer gaze. Plus claws. Long, long claws.

Alfred brought up his arms to shield his face just as the creature lunged at him, and he swore he could hear the summoner laughing maniacally.

* * *

He woke up in the field once again, only his coat was nearly torn to shreds and he had several gashes all over his body. Luckily he came prepared for that. He reached into his satchel and retrieved a roll of bandages, patching up the wounds as best he could and downing another potion.

The mage may have thought he was deterring Alfred by attacking him so viciously, but all he was really doing was increasing the gunner's desire to recruit the prickly little man as his summoner, and as Matthew and the other citizens of America would attest, Alfred really was incredibly stubborn, and if he really wanted something, he got it. Perhaps if he hadn't shown off what he was capable of, Alfred would have let it rest and looked for another mage, but now he was set in his goal.

So he went back, and then he went back again. Again and again and again. Each time the summoner cast a different spell to try to dispel Alfred. Fire, lightning, water, earth, ice (it was a rather peculiar experience to thaw out), and a few spells he'd never even known about. Each time Alfred became more and more determined to recruit the summoner and the summoner became more and more irritated. Alfred thought it odd, however, that despite insisting he was a summoner, he had yet to actually _summon_ anything, as he was almost certain that the white creature was a familiar and not a summoned monster.

That changed, and it wound up being a change in his favor.

For the umpteenth time, Alfred stepped into the great hall, the faeries giggling and waving at him as he entered, and he spotted the blond trembling with anger and nearly tearing the binding on his book as he gripped at it with white knuckles.

"Do I really have to _kill _you to get it through your thick head that I won't ever join you?" the man snapped, fury burning in his green eyes.

Alfred smirked and waved a finger at the man. "Nah, I'll just come back as a ghost and haunt you until you decide to join me on my spooky adventures instead!"

"Not if I destroy you so utterly that even your soul won't have the chance to reach Hades!"

The summoner slammed his book open and Alfred braced himself for the impending attack. When the markings didn't appear around his feet, but instead around the mage's, and he lifted his hand into the air instead of holding it out towards Alfred, the gunner couldn't help a little rush of excitement. He was going to summon something, it was really going to happen.

The mage lowered his hand and grinned devilishly as he uttered in a low voice, "Golem will take care of you."

For a few moments there was silence and Alfred was about to whine about how he'd been expecting something amazing, when suddenly there was a great groan that made the entire building shake from its breadth and Alfred had to wave his arms to stay on his feet as _something_ stomped steadily closer.

The summoner just continued to watch Alfred with a smirk on his face and didn't even flinch when the roof of the building was suddenly ripped away, revealing the creature that had been summoned. A stone golem, much taller and nearly as wide as the building it had just de-roofed, its empty eyes searching the inside for its target. Alfred gulped and quickly reached for his bazooka. The movement caught its attention and before Alfred could cast the spell needed to get the bazooka to work, it was knocked clean out of his hands by the sweeping hand of the golem. Alfred swore and ran after where it skidded across the floor on the opposite side of the building.

The summoner, meanwhile, laughed victoriously. "Well, 'hero'? How does it feel to be so utterly beaten?"

He was so caught up in celebrating what he clearly felt was his impending victory that he didn't even notice the golem turning its attention to the very person who summoned him. It brought its arm up and balled its hand into a fist that it swept right at the summoner, who noticed too late that his creature had turned on him.

Alfred could only watch as the summoner sailed through the air, his book landing somewhere on the opposite side, and then slammed into a wall. He wheezed and stood up with a slight wobble, bristling to yell up at the massive stone giant.

"Golem! What are you doing? You are not supposed to attack me!"

Alfred ran forward just in time to tackle the summoner out of the way as the golem lifted its foot with the intentions of smashing the summoner underneath. Bits of what remained of the ceiling crumbled and fell to the floor as the creature's foot impacted.

"What are you doing?" the summoner seethed through his teeth and struggled against Alfred's grasp.

"I'm not about to let my summoner get smashed!"

"I'm not your-"

"Look out!" Alfred shouted and rolled out of the way of the golem's stomping foot, taking the mage with him. He quickly scrambled to his feet and pulled the summoner with him. "So what kind of summoner are you? You can't even control your own creature!"

"Oh, sod off! There's just something wrong with it! Normally it obeys my every word!"

"Yeah, great time for it to not listen," Alfred huffed and tugged the summoner behind him as he ran out of the way of the golem's foot once again. "Damn, I need my bazooka so I just destroy this thing!"

"You can't destroy it!"

"I'm not going to let it run loose! What if it goes to America? It'll destroy the town and kill all my friends and family!"

"You _can't_ destroy it, I said! Don't you know that those creatures are linked to magic and therefore the very foundation of the world? If you destroy it, there's no telling what will happen!" the blond shouted as he was tugged behind the gunner. The golem continued to follow their progress with its empty eyes, smashing holes in the walls and reducing the floor to piles of debris.

"Oh, fantastic. This just keeps getting better and better. Well, there's no way I'm going to let it run loose! Can't you just send it back?"

"I'd need my book to do that, you dolt," he said very matter-of-factly, as if they were arguing about the weather instead of running from something that could very well kill them if they weren't careful. Luckily dexterity had always been Alfred's forte.

"I'll just have to distract it then while you get your fancy book and send it back. A couple blasts won't destroy it, right?"

The summoner hesitated, but then nodded. "Do take care that you don't overdo it. If that's even possible for you."

"Hey, I'm not going to be a hero for nothing! Leave it to me! All right, on the count of three… One…two…three!"

Alfred released the summoner's hand and made a beeline for his lost bazooka while the mage took off in another direction where his book had landed. Alfred slid underneath the golem's hand just as it swept towards him and he scooped his bazooka up in his arms.

Once, when he was younger, a woman who called herself Mama Greece had spent some time in America, telling the local children tales of the adventure she had embarked on. The creatures she'd slain, the places she'd seen, and how her hometown had been renamed in her honor. Alfred, being the inquisitive child that he was, had asked her about magic. His innate powers were weak, but she had taught him the basic spells anyway. Practice though he did, the spells never got any stronger, that is until he decided to be a gunner. Once he uttered the incantation, all he had to do was focus the spell into the bazooka, where it mixed with the ammunition inside and created a blast far more powerful than a regular bullet or spell.

So he propped the bazooka on his shoulder and muttered the fire spell Mama Greece had taught him, then focused the energy into the bazooka.

"Eat this, you freak," he said with a grin as he fired the blast.

The golem groaned and stumbled backwards slightly when the blast impacted, and although its stone features didn't change in the slightest, Alfred could tell it was angry, because it gave up on the summoner entirely and focused solely on Alfred. Alfred ran away just in time to dodge the golem's fist once again, then he propped the enormous gun up and prepared to cast another spell.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the summoner retrieving his book and quickly opening it. The runic markings appeared, but Alfred thought it wouldn't hurt to give the golem one last parting gift. That would teach it not to turn on its future gunner.

He fired an ice spell mixture at the giant, which worked better than anticipated, as the creature froze into a block of solid ice just as a void opened up and the golem was sucked back inside.

It was then that Alfred realized how quickly he was breathing and how rapidly his heart was pounding. He glanced over at the summoner, who still looked fit to kill. Not that Alfred could blame him, considering that the building wasn't really a building anymore so much as a pile of rubble.

But he still wasn't expecting the sudden blast of magic that the summoner sent his way, the tinkling sound of the faeries giggling echoing in his ears as he lost consciousness once more.

* * *

He returned later to find the summoner out in the garden. The faeries floating above his head and cooing at him in a soothing manner. The white creature was small again, and nuzzling at its master's leg.

"You really never give up, do you?" he asked wearily when he spotted Alfred. It was a resigned question, lacking the bite it had before.

"I've decided. You're going to be my summoner. That's just how it's going to work," Alfred replied with a smile and cheerfully approached the smaller blond.

"Arthur Kirkland," the summoner said.

"Eh?" Alfred asked dumbly and stopped in his tracks.

"My name is Arthur Kirkland," the summoner repeated and averted his gaze, his cheeks turning a slight shade of pink.

Alfred beamed and quickly closed the distance so he could grasp Arthur's hand in his and shake it vigorously. "Nice to meet you, Arthur! So does this mean you're going to be my summoner, after all?"

Arthur calmly pulled his hand away from Alfred's and continued to look decidedly away from him. "Tell me, Alfred. What do you hope to accomplish on this adventure of yours?"

"I'm gonna be a hero! The world's a big place, I'm sure there's people out there that need someone to look after them and keep them safe. I want to be the one to do it for them!" Alfred stated proudly, confidently.

Arthur finally looked at him, as if appraising him, then he sighed. He turned his attention to the faeries with a fond look on his face. "You'll keep this place beautiful for me, won't you, loves?"

That was an acquiescence if Alfred had ever heard one and he jumped into the air with a victorious whoop. "Hell yeah, I've got a summoner!"

Arthur scowled at him. "I'll never enjoy peace again if I don't agree, and I'll never enjoy peace if I do agree. However, I believe it's the lesser of two evils to just go with you. There may be rare treasure I have not yet obtained and spells I've yet to learn waiting for me out there."

Alfred held his hand up in a friendly gesture, intending for Arthur to grasp it. "This will be the start of a wonderful partnership, Artie!"

Arthur just rolled his eyes and pushed past him, the faeries and the white creature following after him.

"Hey, wait up!"

* * *

"Mattie!"

Matthew was rather surprised to hear his brother's voice again, considering how long he'd been gone he was certain that Alfred had either died or failed so utterly that he was never going to come back home again. Instead his older brother came bounding into the guild with a shorter, irritable looking blond following behind him. Matthew wouldn't even try to comment on how haggard they both looked, he didn't even want to know the how or why, although he suspected that the recent earthquake was somehow Alfred's fault.

"Look what I found! My new summoner!" Alfred chirped and motioned emphatically at the smaller man donning a large cloak.

Matthew's mouth fell open and he looked back and forth from Alfred to Arthur and back again, the gunner grinning brightly and the summoner scowling and grumbling.

"You…you actually found..?" Matthew stuttered, the words dying in his throat. He hadn't actually expected Alfred to succeed, especially not after the stories about how vicious the mage in the woods could be.

"His name's Arthur and we're going to set off on our adventure as soon as we get some rest and supplies!"

Matthew opted to ignore his brother's rambling and instead turned curiously towards the man who Alfred had recruited. He suddenly felt shy and looked down at his hands instead of directly at the summoner's green eyes.

"You are his brother then?" Arthur asked, although he sounded more bored than curious.

Matthew nodded. "That's right, my name is Matthew."

"Arthur, and I do hope you won't mind that I plan to cast an ice spell right now to shut your brother up."

Matthew just grinned. "Cast away!"

Arthur flipped his book open and started muttering the proper incantation. Alfred finally stopped chattering when he noticed the runes beneath him, and he yelped just before he was encased in ice. Arthur smirked and slammed the book shut, leisurely walking past the ice sculpture that was Alfred.

"He'll be all right, won't he?" Matthew asked hesitantly as he came out from behind the counter to examine his frozen brother.

"I just need a few minutes to myself, Matthew. He'll be just fine soon enough, don't worry. I can't very well injure my gunner too much, can I?"

Matthew just blinked at the smirking summoner as he exited the guild and then sighed as he waited for his brother to thaw.


	2. Chapter 2

**An Impromptu Fantasy  
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**The Story in Which Our Heroes Try to Catch a Chocobo and Things Generally Do Not Go Very Well  
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**By: Liete**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or any of the characters portrayed.**

**A/N: Since it was mentioned, I honestly have no idea what Romaheta is, so this isn't supposed to be related to that at all. It's a completely separate AU from Hetalia Fantasia or anything else. Sorry if that wasn't clear!  
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"I'm getting _sand_ on my shoes," Arthur sniffed and rapped Alfred on top of his head.

"We're in a _desert_," Alfred grumbled back irritably, wishing he had a free hand to swat Arthur's with.

"Yes, well, you _could _take more care not to jostle me so."

"That's it!" Alfred snapped and stopped short. He had been carrying Arthur on his back up until that point, but with all of Arthur's griping and whining, he'd had enough. He tossed Arthur unceremoniously off of him and into a sand dune. The mage sputtered and quickly scrambled to his feet while Alfred fumed. "Why can't you just walk on your own? Or better yet, why don't you have that familiar thing of yours transform and carry you? Why does it have to be me?"

Arthur glared at Alfred as he brushed the sand from his cloak, while said familiar floated serenely onto the summoner's shoulder and squeaked "pyo! Pyo!" at Alfred. "It takes a considerable amount of magic for Pyo to maintain that form, so it's not to be used whenever it strikes my fancy."

"You sure don't mind having him transform to attack me," Alfred mumbled bitterly under his breath, although Arthur didn't seem to take any notice of his comment.

"Need I remind you that _you_ are the one who wanted to head west instead of taking a boat east? We'd not be in this mess if not for you."

"There's monks in Japan and China, and I want one to join our party! There's no point in going east when I've already got you!"

Arthur quickly turned his head, but Alfred could almost swear he saw the summoner's cheeks turn a slight shade of pink.

"Be that as it may… It is still _your _fault that our journey will not be a smooth one," Arthur huffed.

"Still doesn't explain why you can't walk on your own," Alfred replied and Arthur turned back to toss his head in the air in that arrogant way of his.

"This heat is making me ill," Arthur stated confidently, as though it was something to be proud of instead of a detriment. Alfred took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Why did his summoner have to be such a pain in the ass?

"Well, this whole carrying you thing isn't going to work for much longer. You gotta carry your own weight in this party sometimes, you know!"

"If it wasn't for you, I'd still have a house to live in."

"It was _your_ golem that destroyed it!"

"There would have been no need to summon it had it not been for you showing up and refusing to go away!"

"All right, all right. Let's not fight," Alfred hurriedly said when he noticed Arthur reaching for the book he kept on a chain attached to his belt. He'd been blasted with more than enough magic since leaving America and he didn't want to risk anymore. Though Arthur didn't seem to need an excuse to blast him. If he stopped for too long, if he looked at Arthur wrong, hell, if he even _moved_ wrong, he'd be on the receiving end of one of Arthur's spells. It had been the reason Alfred had agreed to carry Arthur in the first place. Scrawny though the summoner may have been, it was still a task carrying both Arthur and his bazooka on his back at the same time.

Alfred pulled off his hat so he could scratch at his head and try to come up with a brilliant plan that would mean crossing the desert sans summoner literally on his back the whole time.

"What we need is someway to get across the desert quickly without anyone getting too strained," he mused aloud and was answered with an impatient scoff.

"And what, pray tell, might that be, 'hero'?" Arthur asked irritably and Alfred scowled at the sarcastic way in which he called him a hero. He _was_ a hero, and he was going to prove it to the entire world one way or another, most especially to his skeptical critic.

Before Alfred could open his mouth to tell Arthur off, movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Both gunner and summoner turned to look at the source of movement and they were greeted by the sight of a large chicken-like creature strutting sedately through the sand. All three were locked in a stare down for several moments, then the bird ruffled its feathers and squawked quite loudly, "wark!"

Alfred grinned brightly and motioned excitedly to the bird while Arthur raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

"That's it! That's our ticket out of here!" Alfred exclaimed and fidgeted, barely able to control his enthusiasm and urge to immediately run and jump onto the creature's back.

"What _is_ that thing?" Arthur asked. He was still watching the bird, which was still watching him in return. Maybe it was just Alfred's imagination, but the bird appeared to have rather large eyebrows, as well.

"A chocobo! They're really awesome for carrying people long distances in a much shorter amount of time… You've really never seen one before?" Alfred asked and turned to give Arthur an incredulous look. The summoner's cheeks immediately flared and he tossed his head to the side.

"W-Well! I've heard of them, of course, but standard transportation in England is a domesticated dragon, you see," he boasted, the color in his cheeks slowly fading away.

Alfred rolled his eyes. "That would have been really useful right about now… So how come you don't have one?"

Arthur coughed into his fist and gave Alfred a sharp, warning look. "Aren't you going to catch that chocobo?"

"Yeah, yeah…" Alfred sighed and stepped carefully forward. The chocobo turned its attention from Arthur to Alfred and took a step back. Alfred paused, waiting for the bird to make another move. When it didn't move, Alfred took another careful step forward, and then another when the chocobo didn't make anymore moves. Finally Alfred just bolted forward and dove for the bird, only to land face first in the sand when the chocobo abruptly bolted with an irritated "wark" and an explosion of feathers left in its wake.

"Son of a-" Alfred swore and hurriedly clambered to his feet so he could run after the fleeing chocobo. He could see Arthur sighing impatiently out of the corner of his eye as he tailed after the chocobo as quickly as he could, which wasn't exactly easy in the sand. He made one last dive for the chocobo, and nearly whooped in victory when he got a good hold on it. His victory was short lived, however, because the chocobo turned and sharply pecked his hands, causing him to release it from his grip.

"Ow! It pecked me! The bastard pecked me! I'm going to-" His sentence was abruptly caught off when he found himself suddenly electrocuted and face first in the sand again. He scrambled to his feet to see Arthur slamming his book shut and giving Alfred a disgusted look. Alfred sputtered, "what the hell was that for?"

"Do you truly only know one way to convince people to join your cause? Being an obnoxious prat won't always work, you know," Arthur sniffed and watched as the chocobo stopped to watch them warily.

"Well, it worked on you, didn't it?" Alfred grumbled in reply, but held his hands up in surrender when Arthur whipped around to glare at him and open his book again. "So what do you propose we do, oh great one?"

Arthur obviously caught the scathing sarcasm in his tone, but chose not to comment on it. Instead he started walking casually towards the very tense looking chocobo standing some distance away.

"A little gentle persuasion is always best," he stated confidently. Alfred watched him, half hoping he'd succeed so they'd have their chocobo and half hoping he'd fail so he could rub in in the smug jerk's face. Arthur reached out his hands towards the chocobo, which just stared at Arthur with dark, beady eyes.

"There there, love. There's no need to be frightened, is there? Come now, that oaf won't harm you."

For a second it looked as if the chocobo was relaxing and Arthur could touch it, but then it suddenly jumped up and kicked Arthur with its considerably powerful feet and then it bolted again. Arthur was sent flying across the sand and wound up sprawled near Alfred's feet. Alfred clicked his tongue and squatted down to poke at the summoner's body.

"Gentle persuasion, huh?" he said with an amused grin. His hand was swatted away as the summoner stumbled to his feet.

"Oh, belt up," Arthur snapped in reply. While Arthur pulled himself together, Alfred looked over as the chocobo once again stopped to watch the two in what was probably amusement. The bastard, Alfred thought.

"Guess we'll really just have to do this the old fashioned way…" Alfred said and once again took off after the chocobo. It let out another "wark" and turned to flee from Alfred's relentless pursuit. This time Arthur followed after him, but at a much slower pace. Alfred gritted his teeth and dug his feet into the ground, determined to catch that damned chocobo, although at the rate they were going, it might have been better to just run across the desert as they were doing now to get out rather than wasting energy chasing after the chocobo.

Alfred slowly but surely closed the distance between himself and the chocobo and when he finally reached out to grab it and quickly jump on its back, it suddenly leapt into the air and landed delicately a short distance away before it ran away again. Alfred couldn't stop to wonder why it had suddenly jumped before he abruptly fell into a sort of hole in the sand. It wasn't quicksand, because he could still see the sky above him, but the more he struggled to get out, the more trapped he became.

"Arthur!" he shouted above him.

"Did you really just fall into a hole? Honestly," Arthur's voice called in return and steadily got closer. Alfred was relieved to hear his voice, but that didn't last very long. As he prepared to ask Arthur to help him out, the sand beneath him started to quake. He found himself suddenly free of his sand trap and steadily rising into the air, far above the shocked face of his summoner. It wasn't until the ground beneath him let out an ear splitting shriek that he realized he was on top of a monster. Then he tumbled inelegantly back to the ground and luckily didn't land on his head.

As he rubbed his sore bottom and climbed back to his feet, he got a good look at the monster he'd awakened. A sand scorpion, and an abnormally sized one at that. It seemed to have its attention on Arthur, who had his book out and open as he started to cast a spell. He wasn't quick enough, however, because the scorpion swung its tail around and knocked Arthur clean off his feet and into a sand dune. When the summoner didn't move, Alfred thought the worst.

"Arthur!" he shouted and took off running towards where the summoner's familiar was floating worriedly above its master's prone form. He didn't get very far before he found himself upside and hovering in the air. He struggled violently and was slowly turned around to stare into the many eyes of the scorpion, which was holding him by one of his feet in its enormous claw.

"Shit shit shit," he swore and quickly grabbed one of his pistols. He shot the monster in one of its eyes and was dropped as it let out a screech of pain. He clambered to his feet once more and tried to reach the fallen mage once again, only to be thwarted once more when the scorpion snapped at him with its claws, causing Alfred to dodge to the side, away from the summoner. As he ran away from the scorpion's claws, he could see Arthur stirring out of the corner of his eye. So the mage wasn't dead, that was a relief, but that didn't take care of their monster problem. If Alfred could just get a safe distance away, he could use his bazooka, but the giant arachnid clearly had no intentions of letting him do such a thing. It pursued him at an alarming speed as he tried to run away, and Alfred realized he'd just have to hope that his pistols could do enough damage to slow the creature down long enough that he could just obliterate it with a bazooka blast.

He skidded to a halt and pulled out both of his pistols, rapid firing in the direction of the scorpion's eyes. The monster blocked the shots with its claws, having learned its lesson the last time. Alfred swore under his breath and continued his assault until the telltale clicks reminded him that he was out of ammo and needed to reload. There wasn't any time for that either. Gritting his teeth, Alfred rushed the monster, jumping onto one of its claws and then rocketing himself off the claw and onto the scorpion's back. The scorpion screeched in anger and tried unsuccessfully to reach backwards to clip the gunner sitting on its back reloading his pistols. When said pistols were fully loaded, he whipped out his bazooka to blast the scorpion to little more than a charred shell.

That was when he was reminded that the scorpion had another ace up its sleeve, its tail. Alfred barely rolled out of the way as the tail nearly skewered him. So his plan to play it safe on the monster's back was a wash, and he'd just have to hope that he'd be able to get a clean shot at the monster. He only had one chance, so he had to make it count.

He rolled off the monster's back and while it turned around to try to find where he'd landed, Alfred settled his bazooka on his shoulder and started mumbling the fire spell needed to fry the arachnid bastard. Just as he was about to finish the spell and charge the bazooka, the weapon was knocked out of his grasp by the sweeping tail that nearly hit him as well. As he watched in horror as his bazooka sailed through the air, the scorpion moved in for the kill and caught Alfred around the waist with one of its claws. It lifted him into the air and slowly squeezed, as if relishing Alfred's slow demise.

This was it, he was going to die. Cut in half. A death from which there was no return. He'd only just started his adventure and it was already going to end. Hopefully he'd be remembered as a hero in America, at least. He went lax as the scorpion paused, teasing Alfred before his death. Alfred closed his eyes.

But his death never came. Suddenly he was on the ground again and the scorpion was set ablaze, screeching in horrible pain as it tried to dowse the flames spelling its demise. Then it finally crashed to the ground and didn't move again. Alfred whipped around to see Arthur holding out his hand, breathing heavily with one eye closed. He closed his book and then fell to his knees. Alfred quickly stood up and ran to his side.

"Arthur! You're all right! Well, mostly! Man, you really saved me, I owe you one!" Alfred exclaimed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Belt up and give me a potion, damn you," Arthur coughed and glared up at Alfred with one eye, the other one still closed as if it pained him.

"Oh! Right, right…" Alfred said and reached into his satchel for one of the vials. He handed it to Arthur, who quickly pulled off the cork and downed it. While Arthur caught his breath, Alfred went looking for his missing bazooka. When he found it, it was badly damaged. What a pain. It was damage he couldn't repair without supplies from an item shop. Their trip to Japan would have to take a small detour to Hawaii so he could repair his bazooka, otherwise they'd never make it to Japan in one piece.

When he returned to Arthur's side, the mage was still in rough shape. He glared up at Alfred and Alfred just smiled back at him. He put his bazooka on his back and then swung Arthur up easily onto his back as well.

"Up you go!" he said cheerfully while the summoner squawked in surprise at the sudden movement. Meanwhile his familiar trilled "pyo!" happily and floated next to its master.

"You fool-! I thought you weren't going to carry me anymore?" Arthur stammered.

"What kind of hero would I be if I didn't take care of my party members?" he replied brightly. Arthur's silence told him all he needed to know. Alfred stared at the ground and said solemnly, "hey, Arthur… I'm sorry about what happened. I promise that from now on I won't let anything happen to you, all right?"

"Don't be foolish," Arthur mumbled in reply.

"Not a fool, a hero!" he chirped and jogged carefully over to the still smoking corpse of the scorpion. "Hey, what do you suppose a scorpion carries with it?"

"Better be something good for all that trouble," Arthur grumbled. Alfred picked up some gold pieces that would probably fetch a pretty penny in town from the charred remains of the monster. All the better, since he needed to buy a few things that were necessary to fix his bazooka. It probably wouldn't hurt to see if they could get a hold of some better equipment as well. Once Alfred was satisfied that he'd completely looted the fallen creature, he adjusted Arthur on his back and turned towards the horizon that lead to the small town of Hawaii.

"All right then! Onward to more adventure!" Alfred exclaimed as he took off into the desert with new resolve.

"…I'm still getting sand on my shoes," Arthur finally spoke up, and once again found himself dumped into a sand dune.


End file.
